48
3RD POV.
The sound of the horses whining soars into the wind, their stallion thumping and grazing into the field as the brothers ride three of them to the private camping site that they’ve created for the upcoming war.
It is situated close to the borders leading their territory with the five neighboring packs. Since the five neighboring packs are working together, it is only common sense that they’d attack together, so that is the best place to have their camping site built.
The brothers alight from the horses, and while the squires close by take over, they walk into the tent of their two commanders, who are planning the war strategy.
“Tell me, soldiers. What’s the plan?” Kieran speaks the moment he walks into the room, breaking into the ongoing conversation between both commanders.
Their attention shifts over to the brothers, and they bow immediately. “My Lords, we didn’t expect you here so soon.”
“Well, we can’t leave things unattended, can we? So, if you don’t mind, keep me on tabs.” Kieran clears his throat and joins them at the table.
Kade stands at the end of the room, his hands rooted into the pocket of his woolen trouser, with a brown jacket worn on top of his blue shirt. He has his eyes peeled at Kieran and the commanders, as is his mind, which is calculating their expressions, aiming for potency. He hasn’t seen any fault, however.
And Kyle, on the second one, has gotten himself a better settlement, where he’s seated and picking his nails. If there’s anything that his brothers know about him, it’s his impatience, playfulness, and incompetence when it comes to situations such as this.
“That’s all, sire.”
Kieran nods his head before his thought rings in remembrance: “Have we received a message ever since the first one?”
“No, my Lord. It has been more than three days since we’ve received any information from the packs.”
“Except it seems they’ve sent one just now.” Kade’s voice rings into everyone’s ears, changing the course of their attention.
“What?′ Kieran asks, to which Kade walks outside the tent, and Kyle and Kieran follow behind him.
There’s a messenger hawk cawing and flying around the site. Kade uses his Alpha aura to call it to his side. Just as he outstretches his arm, the bird lands and caws. Seeing the message tied to its neck, Kade chuckles and frees the bird before he opens it.
His chuckle hardens more, “it seems we’ve lacked our touch. These wolves have grown quite the fancy bravery.”
Kieran steps forward, his eyes narrowing at Kade. “What message is that?”
“You don’t want to believe it, brother.” Kade shakes his head, drifting his sight heavenward for a brief moment. “They’ve asked us to meet them outside the territory, at the Greenville Forest. Can you believe that?”
Kieran finds himself scoffing. “At this point, I am given every reason to believe that if we have to destroy every other wolf out there, we shall. We ride out.” He finishes and turns, heading towards his horse.
Kade and Kyle do the same, too. They ride out to the Greenville Forest until they get into the heart of the forest and stop there.
The only sounds present are the insects flying around and sucking the nectar in the ville. It is a beautiful forest, filled with wonders of eclectic artistic colours of flowers. The Greenville Forest is like a garden filled with flowers and shrubs, beautifying every part of it.
The brothers prepare themselves, their senses heightening when they heard the sounds of horses approaching them, grazing through the field.
“The three most feared creatures in all of the werewolf territory actually got our message and came over. Should I imagine that you have lost your touch?”
As usual, Kade, Kyle, and Kieran have linked their minds together, so they can have a free flow of conversation where the three of them are talking just through Kade since they need to utilize his personality better.
“My touch is as burning as ever. Feel it, and you’d be wailing. Now, hurry. Say your minds. My brothers and I plan to listen.”
In front of the brothers are four alphas and one Luna, which makes up for the five neighboring packs who plan to go on a war with the territory of the brothers.
The brothers know of their vengeance, of their anger, and of the reason why the alphas want to kill them, including the one queen between them, Luna.
Each of these people has been hurt by the triplets over time, and because of fear, they kept their voices down, but ever since Alpha Alaric stood up against the triplets and actually had an effect on them, even at his death, he has awoken their strength, their alpha auras, and their mindset to the positivity that they could crush the triplets.
For example, the Luna of the Red Moon pack lost her mate because of the triplets. The late Alpha of the pack and she had a son who had challenged Kieran into a just and fair fight then, where they fought till the death, and when Kieran killed him, the late Alpha of the Red Moon pack committed suicide, unable to continue ruling since his kin is dead.
Now, the pack is left for Luna to rule, and every anger she has inside her is justified, so if she has the chance to fight the triplets back, she will not hesitate.
One of the alphas drops a gauntlet onto the ground, his eyes fixated on it, before he raises it up to Kade. “Pick it up, and we shall have a fair and just fight, which shall be according to the knight’s code. We shall fight to the death. If we kill the three of you, your men shall surrender, but if you kill us, ours shall surrender. That’s all.”
Kieran’s eyes squint at the men in front of them, slightly chewing his bottom lips unconsciously.
The alphas and Luna are about to leave when Kade speaks up. “And what happens when we don’t pick it up?”
“You don’t want that. We’d come anyway. We shall fight till we kill every one of your men, and your life as well would be nothing short of peasant to the face of our blades.”
Kade chuckles loudly at that. “It’s funny how you all have such a brave notion that you can actually win.” Kade’s humour is genuine because he has seen the weakness that these people have, and he’s certain of how much he could hurt them with it.
“Let me tell you something, Kade.” Says the Luna of the Red Moon pack. She exhales heavily before she adds, “if there’s something you don’t understand, it is the power of love, loyalty, and empathy. You think it is weakness, but no, it’s fuel that strengthens us. You have hurt each and every one of us through our weakness, which is love, before, but this time around, it is to hurt you. You will lose this war.”
Once she finishes, they leave.
The brothers remain in the forest. Kieran drops off the horse to pick up the gauntlet. “Kieran!” Shouts Kyle.
“We must accept this fight. We aren’t escaping it. It’s set. It’s either we win every territory at the end of this war or we lose it all. One must occur.”
“Fuck,” says Kyle before his horse whines as he turns to leave.
His brothers trail after.
It is now evening, and the brothers have arrived back at the palace. Their minds are troubled, and there isn’t any lack of evidence for the outside eyes.
“There’s no other way of stopping this.” Kade speaks up after the long moment of silence.
“I hate to admit this, but mother and uncle Jared are right. If we really fight in this war and win, it would be an end for us as well. We cannot kill every man in their territories, and since we cannot, it would born within us, foes who would be waiting for when to destroy us from within. And if we think of it differently too, if we still win and kill them all, we’d be spread too thin, ruling all these territories.”
“Brother, you have such a good, menacing notion that we’d win.”
“Because it’s reality.” Kieran says and shakes his head.
“As much as I hate what we are getting into, I love the certainty we have within us.” Kyle speaks before he finds himself a space to sit and relax.
Kade is mute, his brain reeling into different occurrences as he twitches his jaw. He has found himself sitting on the leather chair, right in front of the study table, while his mind has traveled to uncountable places.